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LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

some for having cut off the tails of their hair; some forsuffering a portion of their beard to grow ; others forwearing strings instead of buckles to their shoes! Thegreat aim of the tyrants and their myrmidons ever was con-fiscation of property and heavy fines, through which, andthe repeated pillagings, legal expenses, bribes to lawyers,judges, jailors, the respectable and independent of societywere reduced to poverty and want; while the scum anddregs were elevated to wealth, station, and authority.Amongst innumerable instances of these melancholy occur-rences, which I could name, did my limits allow, I willonly mention one with which I was myself acquainted. The

noble-minded, virtuous Duchess of-was, fora long

period saved from starving through the charity of one ofher servants. Many ladies, old and young, were entombedin dungeons, accused of having in the time of the Repub-lic solicited alms and food for the wounded and sicksoldiers and national guards. Other ladies were condemnedon pretence of their having been seen at their balconies onthe occasion of some public ceremony or review ! Everywretch who had a pique, or a spite, or a supposed injuryto revenge was sure to be listened to—in fine, I must windup this part of my work by again remarking, that althoughthese transactions of 1799 do not immediately belong to mypersonal biography, I persist in thinking myself warrantedin carrying through the exposition, inasmuch as the eventsand the moral lessons they contain, are instructive and im-portant at all times and seasons.

The pernicious effects of despotism and tyranny upon thegeneral morals of a people were signally exemplified in theunhappy social condition of the Neapolitan nation, underthe pestiferous dominion, the more recent features of whichI have just been sketching in the foregoing pages. Theenemy, the debtor, or creditor, the jealous, the rival, were